Greek Statistics

This is what happens when the human beast gets cornered:

ATHENS, Greece — Greece has won strong endorsements in the past year for shoring up its economic statistics after years of fudging data to conceal its deficits and financial mismanagement, but the man who's responsible for restoring the country's reputation is now the target of possible prosecution.

He's been accused of exaggerating Greece's deficits in a conspiracy to strengthen the hand of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

..."It's as if ELSTAT, Eurostat" — the Luxembourg-based Statistical Office of the European Communities — "the Department of State and the planet Mars conspired to change the deficit numbers so that Greece would have to turn to the IMF for more help," the official said. "It's crazy. It's even crazier that we are devoting part of our time" to responding to the charges.

...On a half-dozen occasions from 2005 to 2010, Eurostat issued "reservations" about the reliability of Greece's statements of its deficit and its proportion of debt to GDP. Before Georgiou's arrival, 10 special missions to Greece by the European Commission, the EU's executive body, had failed to bring the quality of Greek data to the level of the other EU countries, the commission said in a January 2010 report.

The report found "severe irregularities" in informing of the EU of excess deficits, "submissions of incorrect data and non-respect of accounting rules." Sometimes data were collected by telephone. Having the national statistical authority report to the Finance Ministry didn't guarantee the authority's independence, integrity and accountability.

...When he began his job, Georgiou discovered that he had to report to a board of experts — including a representative from a government employees' union — who wanted to have a say in the reporting of statistics to the EU. When he resisted, board members proposed to break up the institute.

After he learned that his official email account had been hacked, apparently by the deputy board chairman, and its contents distributed to the board, Georgiou went to the police and stopped holding board meetings. At his request, Parliament dropped all members of the board except the union representative.

Now Georgiou has to contend with the prosecutor in the conspiracy case against him, who's taken testimony from former board members, journalists and outside experts — everyone but Georgiou. After the prosecutor recommended that the case be turned over to Parliament, without hearing his defense, Georgiou went to the supreme court last week demanding to be heard.

All this despite a public letter from the head of Eurostat that defended Georgiou in no uncertain terms. Eurostat, Walter Radermacher wrote Dec. 1, "refutes all allegations that the deficit of 2009 was overestimated." The compilation of 2009 and 2010 data has been published "without any reservation ... in contrast with previous periods." Radermacher credited Georgiou and his staff with implementing "new and strengthened procedures" and "a high level of professionalism."

Now the question is whether the Greek political establishment will observe the European standards or insist on "Greek statistics."